If the VHL Play-off started today: European Conference

[Gaikoku-hito 1,990]

If the VHL Play-off started today!!

 

 

Here we are a week or ten days from the VHL Play-offs and I thought it would be interesting to look at the possible match-up.

Let us start in the European Conference since I won`t lie that is much easier than the North American conference will be to determine order.

 

 

Current Standing:

1. HC Davos

2. Moscow

3. Riga

4. Prague

5. London

 

 

Wildcard Game:

Prague versus London

London the defending Champions have really struggled to score this season with the 4^th lowest goals scored in the league but luckily defense can also win you games and they have relayed heavily on Jesse Teno with 2.34ga and .923sav% and the team will need him as they face the 5^th best offense in the league but lucky for London; Prague has struggled on the defensive side of the puck with the 4^th worst goals against. So, these two teams are really polar opposites.

 

 

Winner: Prague

Prague should win this series as they also lead the current season series 2-0-1; I am assuming that this will be a close series going at least four games of the possible five.

 

 

First Round:

HC Davos versus Prague

Since I already talked about Prague in the wildcard match-up, I will stay focused on HC Davos. Simply they have dominated the VHL this season with 14 more goals than any other team at this point in the season and post a very top notice defense to aid that offense as goal against is 4^th best in the league but they will most likely have the Victory Cup curse from the past few years, right? Not to mention that if I remember correctly two of the last three winners of the Continental Cup have been wildcard teams. So, Prague will upset?

 

 

Winner: Prague

Prague has played HC Davos hard this season with a head-to-head of 1-2-2 meaning they could easily flip the switch on Davos should they meet as I am forecasting. It will be close series either way with a bounce here or there that will determine the outcome. With the curse, I can easily see this as where HC Davos falls.

 

 

Moscow versus Riga

Riga is currently one of the hottest teams in the league with six straight victories heading into the play-offs. They boast the 7^th best defense and the 2^nd best offense so will give Moscow nightmares. Moscow themselves boast 5^th best offense and best defense so it should be a close series.

 

 

Winner: Moscow

It was too hard to look past the current 10pts difference in the standing and no lean the way of Moscow but what really made the choice a bit easier was the current head-to-head in the regular season with Moscow currently with 3-2-1 record against Riga. It will be a close series but I think Moscow has enough to get past Riga this time around.

 

 

Terence Fong European Conference Finals:

Moscow versus Prague

I can drag this out longer but since went through both teams already; I really don`t think we really need too. 5<sup>th</sup> and 7<sup>th</sup> best offense will cancel each other out really so it comes down to defense; one has struggled in this area and one well, hasn`t.

 

 

Winner: Moscow

Simply put this could be the most lopsided round of my predictions as Moscow is clearly the better team in this series. They even have the regular season standing currently backing them as well with 3-1-1 record. Moscow should end up in the Continental Finals but we will have to wait until next week to see who I am will have them match-up against as I try to unpick North America as it has three-way tie for the wildcard spots. What a mess!!

 

 

(Yes, I will most likely write it right now since I want to keep the standing similar and if I wait a week than we will already know who made the play-offs)

Edited July 17, 2023 by Gaikoku-hito